Pete Ruth, North American Business Manager, Tin Technology and Refining

How has Covid-19 affected your business in 2020?
The Covid 19 pandemic has led to setbacks in some product areas. However, we were able to compensate these somewhat through other product areas. For example, due to the price increases of alcohol, the prices for alcohol-based fluxes exploded and the demand collapsed. As a result, we offered our customers water-based fluxes, for which we now see increased demand. Furthermore, we started the production of disinfectants and were able to see some success in that area too.

Has the pandemic affected your business plans for 2021?
Yes, because nobody knows how the coming year will develop. This means that we have to plan very flexibly with these uncertainties. Whether trade fairs or other events will take place cannot be said with certainty either. Therefore, we will be very flexible here as well. We will focus even more on digital communication and work closely with our cooperation partners, Eutect GmbH and Feinhütte Halsbrücke GmbH, because together we are stronger.

What are your expectations for the electronics assembly industry next year?
I expect that next generation technologies from the fields of digitization, e-mobility and medical technology will continue to drive electronics production. However, I question the extent to which EMS service providers will survive the coming year, because many are already suffering greatly. I think that this depends highly on their customer portfolio.